R200m Covid-19 in Vereeniging hospital a disaster
The Kopanong Hospital Covid-19 facility was supposed to be completed 18 months ago.
Built with money amounting to over R200m, the Kopanong Hospital Covid-19 facility in Vereeniging, which was supposed to be completed 18 months ago, is a disaster.
No security guards are seen at the decrepit hospital as they have not been paid, and grass is growing around the incomplete new wards that were meant to be for Covid-19 patients. Ceilings are broken and the floors also need urgent repair.
Democratic Alliance’s (DA) Emfuleni Councillor, Daddy Mollo also found this situation when he visited the hospital last week after receiving complaints about the poor state of the hospital building. The medical staff is said to be concerned by the lack of security and the decay of the hospital.
About R200m was spent on the new wards using Alternative Building Technology (ABT) which were supposed to be completed 18 months ago when the Covid-19 epidemic was accelerating.
These wards were supposed to have 300 ICU beds, but the contractor is said to have failed to finish the job. Mollo said that it is a sad tale of incompetence by the Gauteng Infrastructure Development Department which has failed to fix the old hospital building and wasted a huge amount of money on the unfinished new wards.
“The Gauteng Health Department has not yet decided on what to do with the new wards if a new contractor can be found to finish them. I will raise these issues in the Gauteng Provincial Legislature as the Kopanong hospital needs to be upgraded to provide decent care to sick people in the Vaal area.”
Read original story on vaalweekblad.com
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